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There is a good chance the marks will go away but it will take some time. Wait at least two months and then email me if you need treatment advice.

As to legal matters: I have no idea really. It would depend on whether you signed a disclaimer, on your jurisdiction and whether you could prove liability and many more factors. You should consult an attorney..

Thank you for posting this picture! I removed the other one, because it was so blurry that nothing was visible.

The vertical scratches could indeed be caused by the needles, because the distance between them is approx. the distance between the needles in a dermaroller head. They seem to be indented and I hope they will at least diminish in the future. This may take a few years though.

As to how this could have happened: My guess is that the needle tips were bent. I have seen that before. Bent needle tips can happen with even the most expensive dermarollers, as can be seen in this picture of a Dr. Roller straight from its packaging:

Especially if a few rows had a bent needle, I would expect a kind of scar to form as in your picture. But please note that this is all conjecture. It is just my best guess, based on the fact that the scars are evenly interspaced vertical lines with a mutual distance comparable to the distance of needles in a dermaroller.

You mentioned that the "Original Dermaroller" was used in the treatment you received. We regularly test dermarollers and part of the test is to examine the needles. Since we are such a major vendor (tens of thousands of custumers over 6 years) we have a very good idea of the quality of the needles in the rollers we sell. We keep testing and monitoring their quality. The only thing that really matters in a roller is the quality of the needle tip. Most of all, the needle should be straight. After that, it should be sharp. It is no big deal when the roller has a dozen flaws - as long as the needles are bona-fide. A roller that nearly falls apart and squeaks and looks awful will give excellent results as long as its needles are straight and sharp, and is used according to our guidelines. We are paranoid as to needle quality, that is why we made people aware of the (extremely small) risk by showing a bent needle of a Dr. Roller in our dermaroller review. It shows that not even the most expensive rollers are always perfect. That is why we are phasing out all rollers except our own brand, since we can totally control its quality. However, this is the only Dr. Roller we ever saw with a bent needle. And we sold thousands.

This brings us to: "How to prevent this":

Do your own dermaneedling. Treat yourself at home. Then you can inspect your instruments, not being at the mercy of the practitioner. And you can choose which instruments you use. Also, you can educate yourself on the best rolling technique to use and everything else associated with dermaneedling. Our site is called "OwnDoc" because we believe that when a person takes things into her own hands, the result is often better and obtained cheaper. "Be your own doctor" - after thoroughly educating yourself using online resources such as ours.

We can not test the "Original Dermaroller" because they do not sell to private individuals, as least not the longer-needled rollers, last time we checked. I assume they are made in SE-Asia, like all other rollers. The practitioners who use this roller will of course not talk about negative experiences online. Therefore, subjecting yourself to treatment with this roller boils down to putting your faith in the company that makes them, and in your practitioner to check the needles before using them.

In your case I recommend a regular 1.5 mm dermaroller and a 1.5 mm dermastamp with 35 needles.

You can roll and stamp during the same session. First stamp the scars, then roll them.

It is wiser to treat just one cheek and the temple (but thoroughly and densely). When it heals, treat the other side.

Single needles can be useful for your deepest scars. You can single needle, stamp and roll the same area during the same session.

You can also try applying A-Ret cream (we sell it) immediately after rolling. A customer of ours got good results with combining microneedling and the application of A-Ret. It is on page two of this thread:

A 1.5 mm dermastamp is an excellent choice in your case and stamping four weeks apart is ideal. You may get some pinpoint bleeding after stamping and it is normal but it is not necessary. The scar will get temporarily more red for a while after stamping.

How long the redness last is individual. In most cases the redness disappears within 48 hours. Try the dermastamp first somewhere else to see how your skin reacts.

Hyperpigmentation is extremely rare and it only sometimes happened to those who are very prone to it. It disappeared eventually but in some rare cases, it took a long time.

I am happy you have results with dermarolling. If you add a 1.5 mm dermastamp to your dermarolling sessions, you may get even better results.

Lack of sleep (as well as severe stress) impairs immune system functioning.

To be honest, I am not able to say for sure whether lack of sleep can affect dermarolling results and if so to what extent.

I am not a fan of taking sleeping pills but if insomnia becomes a chronic problem, it can result in the breakdown of one's mental and physical condition. You can get some relief by temporarily taking first-generation antihistamine pills as they have a strong sedating effect and thus are an effective OTC sleeping aid. They usually contain Diphenhydramine.

"Examples of products having diphenhydramine as the only active ingredient include Unisom, Tylenol Simply Sleep, Nytol, ZzzQuil, and Sominex (the version sold in the US; that sold in the UK uses promethazine)".

They are also sold as antiemetics (against sea sickness).

Peak plasma concentrations of diphenhydramine are reached in 2-3 hours so take it long before you go to bed.

The plasma half-life is 8.5 ± 3.2 hours (it means the existing levels will halve every 8.5 ± 3.2 hours) so you will still feel a little drowsy for some time after waking up and that is unpleasant. However, there is hardly anything more important for health than good sleep. Not everybody needs 8 hours of sleep but everybody needs a certain number of hours to function normally.

I am sorry it does not work for you. Have you needled the white patch and also a little over the edges of the white patch to facilitate the migration of melanocytes from the surrounding normal skin into the white patch?

Have you done this:

"When the skin is healed from microneedling, expose your hypopigmentation to the sun because melanin is produced as a reaction to UV (provided there are melanocyte cells in the area to produce it)"

To improve the overall skin tone and texture, I recommend a regular 1 mm dermaroller (pigmentations need more frequent rolling so roll once a week) and our 0.5 % Tretinoin cream (apply every second day).

For targeted treatment of the scars, a 1 mm or a 1.5 mm dermastamp with 35 needles.

The Tretinoin cream will also slightly lighten the moles and especially the post acne spots.

Concerning freckles, I think they look nice (I have a soft spot for freckles in general). You can lighten them with various skin lightening products, acid peels, melanin inhibitors but you cannot get rid of them for good because the body will likely always tend to overproduce melanin in these areas. You can lighten them for example with the Tretinoin cream but it will make the skin dry, especially initially. Good old lemon juice used regularly (mixed for example with white yogurt) is cheap and worth trying. Add some vit. C powder to the mixture. Lemons do not contain much vit. C (ascorbic acid). They contain citric acid.

Moles are dark due to a very high concentration of the pigment melanin that is normally present in the skin and its production is further triggered by sun exposure. Melanin is our natural UV filter. The darker the skin, the more melanin it contains.

Buy a 0.5 mm dermastamp, stamp the mole and apply a melanin inhibitor (such as hydroquinone) right after stamping. Hydroquinone does not remove current melanin; it only reduces the formation of future melanin so it will take many weeks to see a difference. You can try various melanin inhibitors.

Buy a wart removal liquid that contains salicylic acid 16% and lactic acid 16% in collodion (such as DUOFILM liquid). Start applying a little on the moles every day (without dermarolling or stamping). If you manage to remove the pigment or significantly reduce it, stop applying it because it could leave a scar. Try it on only one mole first.

You must use a high factor sun screen otherwise it will quickly reappear.

The skin will most likely indefinitely over-produce the melanin in the mole so you have to continue "fighting" it indefinitely as well. The reason why the skin overproduces melanin in certain areas (freckles, moles etc.) is unknown.

A dermastamp would probably be the easiest to use in this area but since you already purchased dermarolling tools, use the single needle and with a little dexterity, you can use a dermaroller there as well. You certainly do not need five different depth dermarollers for a scar. A single needle is basically enough in this case.

I do not recommend applying A-Ret (Tretinoin) cream right after dermarolling because it is acidic and it stings when applied to the rolled skin but in some special cases such as stubborn scars and stretch marks, I highly recommend it.

No, getting dressed after rolling does not increase the risk of infection. People are overly conerned about the danger of infection after rolling. Infections after rolling are almost totally unheard of. I have heard only of two people in the entire history of dermarolling who aquired an infection, and that was due to gross negligence (not disinfecting a roller after use and then re-using it).

I wish I knew why some achieve incredible results with dermaneedling and some get no results.

Also, just like any other method, dermaneedling does not improve 100% of skin conditions in 100% of cases. From my own experience, the wrinkles above my upper lip and the wrinkles in between my eyebrows (the so called 11's) improved tremendously after regular dermaneedling, whereas my crows' feet have not responded almost at all. Which wrinkles or scars respond is very individual.

Gustavo, thank you very much for your willingness to document your experience. You have scars but your skin still looks very nice. If you keep on documenting your progress (regardless of the results - as long as you keep at it regularly), we will reward you!